Trinity League Football

The CIF published a convoluted method for deciding where to place non-automatic qualifiers about two years ago, but that procedure is nowhere to be found today.  Going strictly by Calpreps (i.e. Freeman) power ratings seems like the methodology that is most fair and requires the least thought (something the CIF is not very good at).

Five teams from one local league ranked in the top 12 of a state with some 1000 high schools?

It’s a sign of the times, SK, but I don’t think it’s a condition that merits congratulations. This club trend has not been good for HSFB and high school athletes in general. The Trinity League, or at least a significant part of it, has abandoned the raison d` etre (I think that’s how you spell it) of high school athletics for a different purpose. The real, the traditional HSFB is now played by the public schools (the Los Al’s, Corona Del Mar’s, San Clemente’s, etc.) and the smaller private schools. These are the programs I admire these days. It’s been a difficult thing for me to watch, having followed, played, coached, and doctored local parochial football starting from six years of age, encompassing three generations. It’s sad when you have an honest to God passion about an institution with value and integrity yet see it devolve and trammelled by a few for less than honorable reasons. You realize that, after all, it was always just a game and evidently not everyone prized it as much as you did or recognized its purpose/value.

So you move on and remind yourself again that change is not synonymous with progress and entropy applies to ethics as much as it does energy states………….Luca

I know you have, and I know that there are some smaller schools that try the club routine if in a far more limited and less financed fashion. I realize mine are ideals gone with the wind, but not to the point of naivete.

When it's no longer a question of who'll win the games but rather the under/over that's debated, there's something gone in the sport. It's hard to get worked up about who's nationally ranked higher between Mater Dei/Bosco versus IMG Academy.......................Luca

It's easy to say a given school should play "a national schedule", as long as you don't have to face the financial impact (i.e. roughly $50K for each out-of-state game) or the fact that most kids can't afford to miss ten to 15 days of class to travel for games. It's unworkable.

That's something that perhaps should have been considered before making the leap into the club team arena. When you opt to go that route it can be hard to generate sympathy when you can't get games against local traditional HSFB teams. Why would you expect programs to see any benefit in putting their local kids up against a club team? Many teams will have a D1 lineman or two from time to time, but when you face a team loaded with six or seven of them along with D1 backers you're increasing the risk of injury to your grossly overmatched kids. The game won't be remotely competitive.......so what the hell's the point?

It reminds me of Abraham Lincoln's story of the kid who murders his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court, pleading that he's an orphan.....................Luca

Thanks Luca. I was going to post roughly the same thing, but you and I have been on this bandwagon for so long, people have started to look at it as beating a dead horse. Now it holds more water when someone different says it...like SK80 above.

Things have now gotten so obvious, that more and more people are beginning to come around to our way of thinking.  Most local schools won't play them anymore. And you're right...no sympathy from many, including me.